The legislature’s Economics Committee yesterday passed a non-binding resolution demanding that state-run Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) transform the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in Gongliao District (貢寮), New Taipei City (新北市), into a liquefied natural gas (LNG) power plant.
The resolution, initiated by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Ting Shou-chung (丁守中), asked the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) to change the plant into a natural gas plant.
Taking lessons from the 1979 Three Mile Island nuclear accident in the US and last year’s Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear disaster in Japan, Ting said the power plant should be changed into a thermal power plant as was done to the William H. Zimmer nuclear plant in Moscow, Ohio, in 1991.
Since the plant is only 20km to 30km away from Taipei, Ting emphasized that a nuclear disaster would devastate the nation’s densely populated north.
The controversial nuclear plant has been under construction since 1997 and is a financial burden on the country, Ting said, adding that the government has already poured more than NT$100 billion (US$3.41 billion) into it.
Minister of Economic Affairs Shih Yen-shiang (施顏祥) said during the question-and-answer session yesterday that the ministry would need to conduct a thorough assessment of the proposal.
A cost-benefit analysis is required before undertaking the proposal, especially since the cost of generating electricity with nuclear energy is less than NT$2 per kilowatt-hour, about NT$2 less than that with LNG, he said.
Chai Fu-feng (蔡富豐), the chief nuclear energy engineer of Taipower’s power generation department, said it is not feasible to make the conversion.
“Moreover, it will be challenging to build a natural gas pipeline, which will take more than 10 years to complete,” Chai said. “It will cost a lot more to purchase new equipment for the new plant.”
The proposal is to be passed to the legislature for final approval.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat